A fruitful struggle

The International Conference on Agrarian Reform of La Via Campesina International took place from April 13 – 17, in Marabá, Pará State, Brazil. The date and place were chosen for their symbolic significance. Last April 17 marked the 20th anniversary of Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, in Pará State as well. For this crime against 19 peasants that day, La Via Campesina turned this date into the International Day of Peasant Struggle.

Marta Di Piero, of the Associazione Italiana per l´Agricoltura Biologica and the European Coordination of La Via Campesina, was present at the conference. In an interview with Real World Radio she talked about one of the conclusions of the conference: “We decided that we are going to focus against the criminalization of the social struggle. Because all over the world people face violent repression of their struggle to reach their human rights regarding landing resources”.

Also present in Pará, Temba Chauke of the Landless Movement, Via Campesina South Africa, reaffirmed the need to implement agrarian reform in a more urgent way due to the changes generated by agrifood multinational companies in the continent: “There is a need for Agrarian Reform in Africa because we have seen the influence of multinational restaurants, such as KFC, Pizza Hut, which have stolen the culture of African people to eat at home, to cook food. People were colonized through that system”.

“Fighting for land is gonna be a long struggle, but it´s gonna be a fruitful one”, concluded Marta Di Piero.